Bonnaroo 2014 lineup: The most diverse and talented to date?

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 05: Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips performs onstage at the Amnesty International Concert presented by the CBGB Festival at Barclays Center on February 5, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for CBGB)

That’s the only word that’ll suffice for Bonnaroo’s 2014 lineup. No matter what genre tickles your fancy or how far flung your favorite artist is paradoxically from that genre, this year’s get-down in the farmland of Manchester, Tennessee has you covered.

For some festivals, 12 bands is the whole package. Bonnaroo has 12 headliners. And that’s not counting acts like Lauryn Hill, Neutral Milk Hotel, Damon Albarn and Cake, who would count as headliners at smaller festivals. (And are, in Lauryn Hill’s case. She’s down on the fifth line at Bonnaroo.)

First, the obvious picks, at least in terms of albums released in the last year: Kanye West, Vampire Weekend, Arctic Monkeys and The Avett Brothers. West has only performed at the festival once, in 2008 during his Glow In The Dark tour, and it was an unmitigated disaster. Since then, he’s made negligible strides in professionalism. But all tends to be forgiven when his opulent performances actually go down. As for the rest, Vampire Weekend had arguably the best album of 2013, Arctic Monkeys just nabbed a BRIT award for best album and the Avett Brothers always deliver onstage.

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So far as the other headliners, outside shots like Jack White, Nick Cave and the ever-elusive Frank Ocean are beloved enough to make a strong case for the festival by themselves. A Bonnaroo with Elton John and a set from Lionel Richie, liable to go all night long, is one most music fans will want to be a part of, even if just to cross them off the bucket list. Younger fans hoping to see their favorite buzz bands won’t appreciate them as much, but the two legends round the group of big names off perfectly.

It just keeps going from there. Straight dancehall and DJ-heads have plenty to choose from in Skrillex (twice), Kaskade, Disclosure, Zedd and Classixx. If you prefer indie with your electronica, there’s the ever-fascinating Robert DeLong, Cut Copy, City And Colour, Polica and Typhoon. Then there’s James Blake, which doesn’t seem like a must-see show, but think again.

Hip-hop aficionados will notice one of the only glaring omissions in the lineup: no Outkast. Seeing as they’re performing around 40 other festivals this year, you’ll have plenty of other chances to catch them, but it keeps Bonnaroo from being the quintessential, one-stop shop this summer by that much. Regardless, Chance The Rapper, Danny Brown, Pusha T and A$AP Ferg should keep it from hurting too much.

The other lack, though less painful, is Arcade Fire. Their tour has them set to hit near every state (and province), so you can catch them about any other weekend. Instead, there’s Darkside, Andrew Bird, Cloud Nothings and Cass McCombs, who’s way down on the third-to-bottom line. That’s how stacked this thing is.

Bonnaroo usually does a Superjam, where they cram a mish-mash of mystery artists on stage (2012 featured D’Angelo and last year had Jim James, John Oates, Billy Idol and R. Kelly) for one bizarre show. This year, there’s three: Comedy actor and noted picker Ed Helms’ Bluegrass Superjam; a Skrillex-curated Superjam; and the traditional mystery Superjam.

As for comedians, Hannibal Buress and SNL’s Taran Killam are the only two listed so far, but expect that to balloon to around 20 comedians as more of the lineup is rolled out. (Believe it or not, there’s more to come.)

The only downsides of the festival are the ones that are inherent to every ‘roo. With a heaping helping of big names from all over the music (and usually, comedy) world, past and present, everybody’s going to want to go. Attendance hovered around 100,000 in 2012 and was rumored at 150,000 (!) last year. If they keep rolling out the GA camping space, which already tends to resemble a refugee camp by day two, you can expect that to grow even bigger this year. That means long lines and the biggest crowds for shows you’ve likely ever seen in your life. In other words, if you want to see Lionel Richie, you’d better like the two bands that play before him, because that’s how early you’re going to have to get there to grab a decent spot.

Logistical gripes aside, the lineup for this year’s Bonnaroo is one of the biggest in recent history. We didn’t even come close to naming all the awesome here — metal, bluegrass and folkies, there’s plenty for you too. If you’ve never been to Bonnaroo before, this is the year to dive in. If you swore you’d never go back, you’ll want to reconsider.